SMITH REACTS TO POSH DRAW

Boro Player spoke to manager Gary Smith following his side’s 1-1 draw with Peterborough

Boro Player spoke to manager Gary Smith following his side’s 1-1 draw with Peterborough at The Lamex Stadium, and again he felt that there were plenty of positives to take.

He began “I think we always looked at this fixture as being the most competitive work out and build up into our season and it was exactly that.

“They were always going to pose a possession problem against us that we were going to have to try and find an answer to .That diamond shape that they’ve played so well in the Championship in recent years caused us some problems at times and there are teams in our league that are going to do exactly the same, maybe not with quite the same quality but certainly with the same sort of tactical shape. In the second period after a little bit of readjusting I thought we did a little better.”

On the subject of shape we asked Gary how he felt the Boro formation was coming on and in particular his thoughts on the man in behind the striker – namely Greg Tansey and Robin Shroot against Posh, with Luke Freeman and Filipe Morais on the wings.

“If you look at that attacking dimension to the group, if we’re not going to isolate Marcus [Haber], then those three guys have really got to show us a positive edge and a creative edge. Part of the game plan is to try and leave Filipe and Luke isolated; one versus one.

“Greg’s goal shows that when we get ourselves in creative areas that he is going to sense a nice little pocket to pick up and he certainly has an eye for goal; we’ve been seeing that throughout pre-season. Those three along with Marcus are going to supply the main thrust of our creation.”

He further showed his high standards by commenting that “the first half was a little bit sloppy” continuing “there were areas of our game that we certainly can focus a little bit more on” however he felt that the second half was “a much better performance all round.”